St. Petersburg Plans to Build Underground Electricity Storage
The energy company Rosseti Lenenergo has begun developing a modular system for electricity storage that will be placed underground. Such high-capacity storage units represent a new direction for Russia«s power grid complex.
The construction of the facility is planned in St. Petersburg, with commissioning scheduled for 2030. The project funding amounts to about 182 million rubles (about $2.4 million at current rates).
Placing the equipment below ground level allows solving a number of engineering and operational challenges:
- eliminates the need for allocating additional land, since the capsule is installed within the protective zone of a 0.4 kV cable line, which also preserves the urban landscape;
- delivery and installation are performed quickly and without complex land redistribution procedures;
- significantly reduces the volume of reconstruction of existing networks for connecting powerful consumers, including fast and ultra-fast electric vehicle charging stations (with a capacity of over 150 kW);
- eliminates the risks of vandalism;
- the soil protects against adverse weather conditions and ensures a stable temperature regime;
- increases the responsiveness of managing the power system«s operating modes.
The implementation of the storage is aimed at increasing the reliability of power supply to consumers and improving the quality of electricity in the grids. The device will help eliminate daily imbalances between generation and consumption, as well as compensate for sharp voltage fluctuations during load changes.
Moreover, the system will contribute to the development of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles.
The development by Rosseti Lenenergo will enable the technological connection of powerful (fast) electric vehicle charging stations to the power grids without major additional upgrades or reconstruction of existing grids, taking into account modern requirements for uninterrupted power supply with set parameters,
the company noted.
